LEGO and Nike turn a Shanghai schoolyard into giant bricks kids rebuild every recess

LEGO and Nike launched a multi-year partnership to get children moving and creating, built on the observation that kids do not separate exercise from play. Their first big move was a real place: a Shanghai primary school playground that usually offered a fixed yard and a short ten-minute recess.

Reimagine the playground as an open-ended LEGO system: oversized sport bricks children lift, stack and rebuild into their own routes and games every day.

The project started with LEGO China's 'Build the Change' workshop, where pupils designed their ideal play space with classic bricks. OLA Shanghai and Our LEGO Agency translated those miniature prototypes into a 550-square-metre playground shaped like a 2x3 brick from above, with six activity zones and more than ten smaller areas, plus oversized modular 'sport bricks' the 1,400 students can move, stack and reconfigure into obstacle courses, climbing challenges or games nobody planned.

The school's principal called the playground the most popular spot on campus, more loved than the traditional sports fields, and one student said exercise now feels like playing. The project doubled as Nike's 50th sustainable playground, with the field built from recycled shoes through Nike Grind, and it took a Wood Pencil at the D&AD Awards 2026 plus a Gold Cube at the ADC 105th Annual Awards.

LEGO and Nike began a multi-year partnership in 2025 to inspire children through active and creative play, and chose a Shanghai primary school as one of its first chapters. At Baoshan No. 2 Central Primary School they found a familiar problem: a fixed playground and a ten-minute recess that did little to move 1,400 students.

The design started with LEGO China's 'Build the Change' workshop, where children built their ideal play spaces from classic bricks. Their ideas — swings, climbing stations, skateparks, parkour zones, even a playground-wide swimming pool — showed that kids wanted to shape the world around them, not just use it.

Studio OLA Shanghai and Our LEGO Agency translated those miniature prototypes into a full-scale playground shaped like a 2x3 LEGO brick when seen from above. Six activity zones and more than ten smaller areas filled its 550 square metres, and oversized modular 'sport bricks' let students lift, stack and rebuild their own routes and games, so the space was never the same twice.

The playground was also Nike's 50th sustainable court built through its Move to Zero programme, with the surface made from recycled shoes via Nike Grind. The principal said it became the most popular spot in school — ahead of the traditional sports fields — and the project won a Wood Pencil at D&AD 2026 and a Gold Cube at the ADC 105th Annual Awards.

Children treat movement and play as the same activity, so a space designed like a building set matched how they already behave better than any fitness programme.

Starting from kids' own brick-built ideas made the brief child-authored, so the final design answered real desires instead of adult assumptions about exercise.

Modularity was the natural shared language of both brands — LEGO's system thinking and Nike's movement expertise combined into one physical object.

Building the playground from recycled shoes let the brands prove their sustainability commitments in a place children use daily rather than in a report.

If the audience can redesign the experience, you have handed them ownership: a playground that children rebuild every day turns exercise from a rule into their own creation.

Opened in late 2025, the playground quickly became the school's most popular spot: teachers reported spontaneous brick-track races and obstacle courses, and the principal said students now fight to spend recess there. It anchors the LEGO-Nike partnership's Greater China rollout and extended Nike's run toward 100 Grind courts across China. Design press covered it widely, and juries followed: a Wood Pencil in Spatial Design at D&AD 2026 and a Gold Cube at the ADC 105th Annual Awards.